Dealing With Spam Comments

Published April 15, 2010 | By Sarah

I hate spam comments, and usually my spam blocker does a pretty good job at catching them. However, I’ve recently been a little over run with spam. Here are a few things I do to ensure that they don’t make it on to the site.

Always set up your site to approve comments before they appear on your site.
Use some of the freely available spam blocking plugins from WordPress such as Akismet.
When approving posts, if the comment is a decent one but it’s obviously just meant to get a back link and is somewhat off topic, I’ll just edit the comment taking out any of the url info. Note: I only do this on obvious spam comments, and I’m happy to leave in links to well thought out and/or genuine comments.
You can always blacklist an IP address as well if you notice the same person leaving several spam comments.

How do you know if a comment is just a spam or a cheap attempt at a back link? Answer in the affirmative to any of the points below, and you’ve got yourself spam most likely.

Does the comment have nothing to do with the post or page it’s posted on?
Does the email address or link belong to a business or an individual? (I don’t necessarily mind a business if they are posting a genuine question/comment)
Is the comment a one liner that is poorly spelled? Again, this doesn’t always mean spam, but trash it unless it’s a genuine question regarding the topic.
Is the comment a generic one that could easily work on any blog? Common ones include things like, “I really see where you are going with this and agree.” or “Great content on here…” You’ll notice when this occurs most often when they appear on a page or post that doesn’t quite match the content of the comment.

Hope that helps, and if you plan to leave a spam comment on this site, you’re comment might make it on, but your link won’t. I LOVE genuine comments or questions, though, so please always feel free to post those.

Posted in That's Just Life, Wordpress Tips and Tricks

4 Responses to Dealing With Spam Comments

Ashley says:

April 20, 2010 at 2:36 pm

Another great reason why I should move to WordPress! I hate all the spam comments I get. If it’s spam from a company I’ll usually take the time to write them a note saying that I don’t appreciate spam and how I did have advertising options available. Of course, I would never knowingly promote a company that spams sites so it’s too late for that option. Usually I get a kind note back. I know it’s not much but I do my little part to try and discourage them from continuing to spam.

Great post!

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Alex says:

May 10, 2010 at 4:49 am

Hi Sarah,
like your taste and good ideas which make for good reading.
Regarding SPAM you can also consider wp-ban (http://lesterchan.net/portfolio/programming/php/) and bad behaviour (http://www.bad-behavior.ioerror.us/).
Best of luck,
Alex

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- admin says:
  
  May 11, 2010 at 12:20 pm
  
  This is a perfect example of a great comment that relates to the post, gives helpful information, and that I’m happy to include the back link to the author on. Thanks for posting.
  
  Reply
Tamiko Zagroba says:

April 13, 2013 at 11:47 am

Free spam blockers are popping up all over the internet. Kind of ironic, isn’t it, that some pop-up ads are advertising spam blocking technology. The problem with spam isn’t really the content, of course, it’s the time spent winnowing through all those e-mails in search of the ones that really contain useful information or are from people with whom you want to contact. The best free spam blockers in the world are not only free, but don’t take up any space on your computer. Yes, I’m talking about being very careful to whom you give your e-mail address.-

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